Comic 365 - Red, White, and Blue, Page 24

Author Notes:

Hey, Ivy! Yeah, if the anniversary picture and the sixth panel don't make it abundantly clear, she's figuring into the story soon. Then there's the stuff about Miss Mania and Liberty Bell - that's pretty much just a reminder of that detail. They're going to be important, very much so, but it hasn't quite reached the time for that yet so that's just a bit of a reminder to keep them fresh in people's minds, plus to bring Ivy back into prominence.

I tried to write this a bit ambiguously in regards to how it addresses the crossover, nothing really said about the events of it since we still have things left to see. Also sort of the reason why Alex is quick to get off the subject, wasn't entirely sure in doing this scene if it was going to run before or after some of the stuff in that, turns out it's before.

Actually really happy with this page as a whole. It's just really good to write a scene of Alex just being toned down and genuinely happy, you know? I really see him being that way a lot, and we've been getting more of it, but a lot of the story lately has been so high-stakes he hasn't really had the chance to unwind that much. The rest of the chapter at least does serve to give a good show of that.

Two pages left to go in the chapter, and they're pretty much devoted to telling you what's awaiting Alex in the next chapter. Probably not a hard guess who he'll be going up against given all of the build-up.

Also, if you're wondering, the idea is Alex is kind of just waiting to fall asleep so he doesn't have his glasses on.

Anyway, yeah, did like a lot the little touches in this page, kinda what pulled it through. We've re-designed Ivy, and one thing we discovered was that she's actually sorta trashy-looking, hence me trying to put that into the second panel. I imagine she came to the documentary wearing a tube top or something that showed off her breasts, but the director didn't like how it looked so he had someone loan her a jacket. Bits of stuff in the hotel and the exterior of it I liked doing too.

But yeah, when I first saw this script, I was sure it would go after the Blues ending, but because the crossover wound up running so long, we haven't even hit the big emotional climax yet. Good call on Martin to not mention what that might be. Heh... Does mean I can't point something out, but sure you can all spot it.

I've driven from the south-western corner of Louisiana to Atlanta before, it's kind of a bitch of a drive. You have to go lengthwise through Alabama to get level with that city. When you're making the trip at night, feels like you'll never get out.